Archives for June 2010

Really cool night.  At the conference they did special recognitions and awards.  First, Earl Mills the senior pastor where I just finished serving was honored for having the church with the most conversions, most baptisms and highest growth in the last 3 years.  Glad I could serve there and play a part in the awesome things that God did.

Next, Earl’s brother-in-law, Dave Draper was given the first ever John Winebrenner Leadership Award for his years of faithful service to God and the Churches of God.  Dave is the President of Winebrenner Seminary and has been one of the more influential men in my life even though I’ve only known him for a few years.

Again so awesome to see two guys I love and respect so much be honored for their leadership and faithfulness to God and the advancement of His Kingdom.

• 1.  I am sent.
  • John 20:19-25
  • When missionaries go overseas and learn the culture so that they can better reach the community, we applaud that.  When we do that in our local communities, we are looked down on.
• 2.  To all different kinds of people.
  • Matthew 28:18-20
  • When Jesus says all nations, His listeners wouldn’t have thought of nations like we do…after all many of them didn’t yet exist.  Instead He meant the Gentiles, those not like us.  We must have a heart to reach people that don’t look and talk like us.
  • We should celebrate churches that are not like our own.
  • Ed…”They Yee’d and Haw’d” in the church I spoke at last week”.
  • If you are going to be a part of a multiplying movement then you need to branch out to other people.
• 3.  To preach about repentance of sins.
  • Luke 24:46-49
  • Repentance is all about a bloody cross and an empty tomb.  It’s not about how to be a better person so you can feel better about yourself.
  • We need to hold our models of ministry loosely and our Jesus closely.
• 4.  Through the power of the Spirit.
  • Acts 1:6-8
  • Worry less about who are all the characters in the end times and more about who are your neighbors in your community.
  • No church is effective if they are not reaching people locally, planting churches nationally and adopting unknown people groups globally.
  • Do be satisfied with addition.  You need to multiply but that only comes through the help of the Spirit.

• First the picture is of my wife Lisa who is celebrating her birthday today!
• 1 Peter 4:8-10
• 1.  ALL have gifts.
  • True Christianity isn’t knowing more minutia, it’s serving others.
  • We are all called to ministry at the moment of conversion.
  • If you end up with more spectators than servants in your church something is wrong.  We need to encourage people to get up off their blessed assurance and get to work for God.
  • A bad economy is good for churches because instead of finding more paid professionals to do the work of the ministry, we instead do it the biblical way and have people volunteer.
  • Many times we take the super great volunteers and start paying them but that only hinders the mission of God because it again tells the church that ministry is only for people who get paid.
• 2.  God intends all to use their gifts.
  • Our job is to be good managers of all that God has given us including our gifts.
  • We lead our people into sin when we teach people to know but not do the Bible.
  • Too many churches don’t look like a body, but instead a pile of dismembered parts acting dysfunctionally like our government.
  • The church needs to be more than just a show where we simply come to be a spectator…it needs to be a group that together are on mission to change their community for Christ.
  • The people are not to just pray, pay and get out of the way.
• 3. For which He empowers us.
  • We have created a culture where our people are more dependent on the pastor than they are on God.  (Codependency)
  • In a codependent church relationship the people need the pastor (hospital visits, teach me the bible, etc) and pastors get their identity from it (I’m the hero, I met their needs, I rescued them, etc) but eventually we resent them because they get mad when we’re not there for them and we realize that nobody is doing ministry but us.
  • We need to unleash the Susan Boyle’s of the world to use their talents if they don’t look the part.
• 4.  To bring God glory.
  • Ephesians 4:11-13
  • When the church becomes a Sunday only performance, then it looks like only a few get the credit instead of God.
  • Churches should look like airports.  Planes come in for a short time to get fueled up but then they leave to do what they are designed to do.
  • Sunday’s should be a place where your people come in to get re-fueled so they can go out and be on mission.
  • Pastors stop doing the ministry.  If people keep insisting then tell them, “Let me teach you how to do that”.

“There are more verses you can find in the bible that would point to you having a concubine than forming a denomination”.  Funniest line Ed had today.  He’s not against denominations he just wanted to make sure we don’t get bogged down in bureaucracy.

3 questions to ask:

1.  Am I looking for the gifting in people?
2.  Am I putting people into the roles they were created for?
3.  Am I willing to stop doing something so someone else can?

NOTE:  I somehow deleted this earlier today so I am reposting it.

The CGGC conference just officially got started. Justin Meier on-stage now getting ready to introduce Ed Stetzer. Here’s some notes from his talk:

• 2 Timothy 4:1-5
• All, not just pastors must do the work of an evangelist.
• 1. We must DO the work of an evangelist.
  • We can use tools for evangelism but it’s still people who are called to do the work.
  • Pastors…you can not lead what you do not live.
  • Distractions…
    • 49% of evangelicals when surveyed by Lifeway do not believe that Jesus is the only way a person can get to heaven.
    • Too many people think as long as they live a good life in front of others that’s enough. Keep doing, but you need to be, do and TELL the Good News.
    • Too many think that just inviting people to church is all the evangelism we are called to do. God has called us to a ministry of reconciliation not simply recruitment.
• 2. We must do the WORK of an evangelist.
  • It’s hard and nobody likes evangelism, but it’s what we are called to do.
  • Some of Ed’s research in this Youtube video from when he was on CNN.
  • People don’t like evangelism because it takes work…fellowship doesn’t take work it just takes chicken.
• 3. We must do the work of AN EVANGELIST.
  • Nowhere in the bible is there a gift of evangelism. We are ALL called to it.
  • Stop trying to convince yourself that only a few people in your church have a gift of evangelism.
  • “Every Christian is either a missionary or an impostor”. –Spurgeon.
  • We’ve sped up our music, spiced up our messages, spruced up our churches, but we are still called to send out laborers into the harvest field. The wheat doesn’t harvest itself.

  2 Corinthians 5:14-21

• If we all understood and lived out these verses, our world would be much different.
• Ed just told a story of the time he fell into a septic tank. Using it to illustrate verse 21…Jesus became sin for us. When you really understand that, verses 14-15 come alive. Doing the work of an evangelist does not seem like a chore but a privilege.

ARE YOU DOING THE WORK OF AN EVANGELIST? Are you leading the charge in your community? Are you living on mission?

• Q:  How does denominationalism impact church planting.   A:  Credentialing needs to be easier.  Credentialing is not the place to protect your theological doctrine.
• Q:  Can all we believe be put onto a sheet of paper without heresy coming into our midst .   A:  No, because over time it will get polluted.  That can work if it’s just what you want to share with your neighbor, but to have any depth to our theology we need more.
• Q:  Does regulation kill movements.      A:  Yes.  Southern Baptists and Pentecostals have more church planting movements than anyone else because they have looser control than other denominations.  Must ask how can we give people permission to plant not but barriers that permit them from planting.
• Q:  If you invite non-Christians to help plant your church does that set a bad example for new people coming in because they are not modeling the Christian lifestyle.    A:  Put new converts into leadership and everyone else into serving roles.
• “New churches attract crazy people.  The key is to keep the crazy people that are already Christians away from the crazy people who are not already”.
• Q:  What roles can non-believers play in a church?     A:  Anything that is a non-visible role.
• Q:  What’s the best way to assimilate people?      A:  Nobody does it well.  Nelson Searcy has a good book on it though.  If you don’t have a process though look at the Purpose Driven model.  :)    Ed says though he doesn’t like the Purpose Driven language though because to him getting to first base always had another connotation.  :)   Key is to have a process that has many on ramps and positive peer pressure where others encourage each other to progress through the system.
• “If you’re going to be mean about something, be mean about the vision”.
• Q:  How do you empower leaders?    A:  Must demphasize the role of the pastor and change it to the priesthood of all believers.   The problem is our culture thinks if the car is broke down I go to a mechanic.  If I’m sick I go to a doctor.  If I’m in need of spiritual help I go to a pastor.  the more we empower our people to be ministers the more people in the community will see that it doesn’t take a professional to get their spiritual needs met.
• Q:  Should we rent a 1day facility or 7 day facility to start?     A:  70% of Americans don’t care where a church meets but order of preference is school, theater then permanent facility.  However if you can get a 24/7 place in a prime location then take that.  Keep in mind that people will drive twice the distance towards a city than out of it.
• Q:  Advice on the Northeast.    A:  Best to use planters that are natives since it’s hard to fit in.  Read book “Big Dreams in Small Places” by Tom Neeble.
• Q:  How do you bridge economic divides in your church?     A:  You can only reach a level above and below your average people.  It’s too hard for people to relate with people (even spiritually) those who are more than one level away.
• Q:  Can an older church reach a younger generation?    A:  yes, but it’s hard because it will require the older people giving up more than what the younger people will have to.  It usually comes down to whether a church is desperate enough.  Must divest from what they want to invest in the mission of God.  Must embrace the mission before they will make a change.  Most try to make changes hoping people will then embrace the mission…doesn’t work.
• “Church planting is good because it’s easier to birth a baby than raise the dead”.
• “Every publication should celebrate and reinforce at least 1 core value”.
• For launch have the core spread out throughout the room so they meet new people, invite them into small groups and model singing, clapping, etc.
• “Every generation thinks that they discovered sex and music…it’s the same way with church.  Don’t allow this generations leaning to missional churches to just be a protest movement against the mega church.”
• Q:  How do you build an evangelistic culture?     A:  Train people to have life-giving, missional conversations.   Everyone needs a question they can ask naturally to others that has the potential to lead to spiritual conversations.  We must constantly raise the value of the necessity of why evangelism is needed.